Venturing to a slightly different place once again… Actually, I have done posts on Egyptian dancers, mostly about four to five years ago. (Unfortunately, if you look back at some of those posts now, you’ll see that most of the clips are gone, but I intend to replace them soon.) Those posts included a few clips by the ’70s-’80s dancer named Fifi Abdou, but I also featured Tahia Carioca, Samia Gamal, and Hind Rostom, who all came from the Golden Age. Egypt’s Golden Age of cinema happened very close in time to India’s, beginning in the 1940s and extending into the ’60s. Having looked at a lot of Egyptian movies at this point, I think it’s fair to say that there also are close parallels between this cinema and Indian cinema in the song-and-dance sequences, with the main difference being that the Egyptian dances were mostly Middle Eastern (of course). But there was a good deal of variety in these Egyptian dances, too, and sometimes one could see some Indian elements as well as a lot of other things. (As we know, there are a lot of Bollywood dances that include belly dancing, sometimes with a distinctly Middle Eastern look. Well, in Egyptian cinema we can see many dances starting as Middle Eastern dances or belly dances and extending into something else.) Some of these Egyptian dances also took on very modern and Western qualities – just as the Indian ones sometimes did…
Naima Akef was probably the most eclectic of the dancers that I have seen. She may not have been quite as renowned as Tahia Carioca or Samia Gamal, but she was certainly up there in appeal, and I have been wanting to write a post on her because some of her dances contained such an incredible variety as well as being excellent and fun. Additionally, she choreographed many of her own dances, and she sometimes even headed a Naima Akef Dance Troupe.
I am going to start this selection with her most strange and possibly most modern dance, “Mambo.” As I’ve said elsewhere, I have seen nothing like this before. After that one, I’ve thrown in six more, which fall all along the spectrum from modern cabaret to traditional Egyptian folk dance. Rather than going into any descriptions of those, I’ll let the dances speak for themselves (because they certainly do speak for themselves – and because that means less work for me).
By the way, you might notice a different format here, because I have decided to use Vimeo as the source. The first clips are smaller than the latter ones, because that’s the way they come at Vimeo (and I don’t know if there’s any way to change that). Nonetheless, I’m glad that I’ve dipped into Vimeo because after so much YouTube, it seems refreshing, somehow.
Dances on the Footpath 
Wow, the Mambo song is… well … different. I’m glad to see you posting about Egyptian dances again, as going through your archives helped get me into Egyptian cinema in the first place. Likewise, I see you posted one of the clips that went inactive–the one with Houriya Hassan–which I’ve been looking for (solved!). Naima does have a distinctive style, I can see. She’s definitely not as charismatic as some other Egyptian dancers to me, but maybe thats because a lot of these are staged sequences. The camp dance in the orange dress and esp. the Aziza bellydance dance with the fez & cane are my favorites here, perhaps because she doesn’t do what I expect in her routine…and for that kind of audience, you see the reaction as well as the dance, lol.
Miranda, I’m glad you liked these and are still interested in the Egyptian dances… As I was saying above, Naima probably isn’t at the same level of renown (or “charisma”) as Samia Gamal or Tania Carioca. (Talk about “charismatic”… Tahia Carioca is supreme. Some very well-known writers have written tributes to her…) But I like Naima for the reasons I said above – eclectic, versatile, and certainly very creative, and she choreographed her own stuff and led her own troupe. Personally speaking, I also think, if she doesn’t have as much charisma as some others, she makes up for it in cuteness. :)
Naima and Tahia (or Taheya) are my favorites. I know Samia is regarded as highly as anyone, but if I were to do a ranked list, she would probably come in at number 3.
Regarding the dances I posted… Yes, the Aziza dance with the fez and cane is one of my couple of favorites. The orange-dress dance is interesting because it has very Indian elements, including the ghungroos, etc. My favorite is the dance from which I took the screen cap, the last of the smaller videos above, with the corn stalk scene at the beginning. (OK, going to the source above, I see that it’s from the 1958 film, Ahebek Ya Hassan (I love You, Hassan).) It takes a while for Naima’s own dance to start here, but once it does, it’s great! .
There may be some connection with India through gypsies but there seem to be different threads. I have heard this before. Internet search gave this reference http://www.bdancer.com/history/BDhist1.html
Swarup, thanks for the link. Readers please note, my Gravatar avatar picture appears next to the comment above because I attempted to move this comment from another post, where it was sent by mistake…and I think this is the best I can do. :)
I haven’t read the article yet; I will in a little while…
It is true that there are different threads of dance… I wonder, though, what the common threads are between the way the forms of cinema are set up. To me, the style seems much more similar between Egyptian and Indian song-and-dance sequences, and the way they are set(?) in the films, than the style between either and, say, old Hollywood musical numbers (even taking into account all the times that American cinema from the ’30s onward – e.g., Busby Berkeley – influenced Indian cinema dances). I tend to think that Egypt’s cinema was influenced by India’s, but Egyptian cinema, itself is just as old (though not as prevalent early on). (I checked Wikipedia on this – no fancy research on my part. :) ) Also, there are so many belly dances in Indian cinema, but they are often different. (There is an article that I saw somewhere about that.) I would assume that Indian belly dance is influenced by Egyptian/Middle Eastern, maybe specifically in the cinema? But, again, don’t really know at this point…
Looking through the reference, it actually shows some pretty close parallels between, say, temple dancers of the Middle East and their relationship to dance vs. those in India. It also discusses fertility goddesses, etc. It is interesting, also, how it makes the connections in “Eastern rhythm.”
I have to say, I am much more impressed by classical Indian dances than belly dances, “Oriental” dances, etc…. I like some belly dancing, but I’d prefer to watch a Kathak any day. (And maybe a Bharatanatyam, though not as often these days. :) ) Or, for that matter, the less strictly classical mujra…
I like the belly dances in classic Egyptian films more than most, once again, because of the way they’re set up – the whole scenes involved, etc. (Plus, as I’ve said, many of these dances are somewhat eclectic.) The classic dancers also do generally have a unique kind of glamour to them… :)